Sabyasachi Basu Roy Chowdhury (Chairman of West Bengal State Akademi of Dance, Music and Visual arts) said on the occasion “This annual exhibition is a platform to promote and encourage promising and talented artists in these fields of art and culture. This will be a good way of encouraging artists who will continue to practice these dying art forms and maintain the rich cultural heritage of the country.”

Sunil Das, an eminent artist in his own right lamented on the sad state of art in the state. “Even in this annual exhibition, all the artists are not present. This is indeed very sad. It is their exhibition and they are not present. The lack of unity among the present generation of artists is also very striking.” said the veteran artist.

State Akademi Awards and certificates of merit were given to artists in both the traditional and the contemporary art categories at the inaugural function. Some of the recipients of the award include Nrisingho Charan Ojha, Tanmoy Raychowdhury, Koushik Pramanick, Swapan Kumar Das, Sanjulal Sarkar, Debu Ray, Shambhu Chitrakar, Sushovon Chitrakar and many more.

This is indeed a noble initiative taken by the West Bengal State Akademi of Dance Drama Music and Visual Arts. We hope this kind of initiative will continue in future also.